The goal of the project is to “establish reliable and fair credibly neutral transaction inclusion, and address MEV issues.”

Recently, Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin shared an updated roadmap for network upgrades in a technical infographic. The purpose of this roadmap is to make the Ethereum network more censored and decentralized.

A few changes include a new milestone for the merge and the creation of a stage called the scourge.

Since September 15, when Ethereum switched to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network, it has been trying to reach 100,000 transactions per second by implementing rollups.

The Scourge has now been updated to the third stage on the technologically roadmap. The stages that will follow are known as the Verge, the Purge, and finally the Splurge.

According to Buterin, the purpose of the project is to “support reliable and fair credibly neutral transaction inclusion while addressing MEV issues.”

Big changes:

* The Verge✅ is not just about “verkle trees”, it’s about “verification”. Endgame: fully SNARKed ethereum

* The Scourge🧟(new): ensure reliable and fair credibly neutral transaction inclusion, solve MEV issues

* Single slot finality as stage 2 Merge🐼 milestone

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 4, 2022

MEV, otherwise known as an “invisible tax,” is a term used by miners to indicate the maximum value they can gain from moving transactions around while producing a block on a blockchain network.

By having this, miners are able to copy any successful deals from the mempool and carry out their own transactions before those seeking profit have a chance.

The Merge has caused Ethereum to become more centralized and censored.

The scourge is designed to keep transactions unbiased and reduce centralization. It could also include Proposer Builder Separation (PBS), in-protocol pre-confirmations, and frontrunning protections.

The Ethereum development team is investigating possible improvements to the network and updating the roadmap.